Moments ago, the National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Ewa Beach, Hawaii cancelled the Tsunami Watch that had been in effect for the entire Aloha State. At 12:20pm local time (5:20pm ET), the initial watch that was issued for a strong 8.1 earthquake that struck the Kermadec Islands region of New Zealand was cancelled.
The powerful 8.1 earthquake was the third major quake to strike the area in the last 12 hours. An earlier 7.1 and 7.5 also prompted regional tsunami advisories. While none of those earlier quakes triggered alerts in the U.S., the 8.1 did.
A tsunami has been observed in the Pacific, though. The Nukualofa observation site reported a 0.2′ amplification over a 30 minute period. There was concern a larger wave could propagate around Hawaii around 4:35pm local time, which prompted the Tsunami Warning Center to initially issue a Tsunami Watch for Hawaii.
Now, the Pacific Tsunami Warning center says, “based on all available data there is no tsunami threat to the state of Hawaii. Therefore, the Tsunami Watch for Hawaii is now cancelled.” They add they won’t issue additional bulletins for this quake and tsunami event unless additional data is received.
In addition to Hawaii being off the hook, there is no tsunami threat for the U.S. west coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.
It is also possible additional earthquakes in the region of today’s powerful swarm may trigger fresh tsunami advisories. If that happens, the National Weather Service team that tracks tsunami and issues bulletins, watches, and warnings for them will issue new ones.
